Need suggestions for 10-min fitness

Heya!

I need some suggestions for little 10 minute fitness breaks that I sometimes take throughout the day. Basically, when I start falling asleep at my desk at work (like, all the time!), I will go to the changeroom, lock the door and get in a little exercise to get my blood pumping again. I usually take about 5-10 minutes, and I'll generally do the following:

a) a set of incline push ups against the counter edge (about 20)
b) a set of squats (about 30)
d) more pushups (I really have to work to get the last ones)
e) a set of lunges (about 20)
f) a set of tricep dips (to fatigue, about 15)
g) spalsh water on my face and go back to work looking a bit more alert

So, first question - am I actually doing myself any good with this? I am trying to build up some muscle, especially in my arms and shoulders (to support my boxing), but can these little tidbits of exercise really help me?

Second - are the other exercises I should be doing instead/as well that would improve my results? Remembering of course that they must be exercises that can be done in dress clothing in a small bathroom-sized area, in about 10 minutes. So, no lying on the floor, no equipment, and no cardio.

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Second - are the other exercises I should be doing instead/as well that would improve my results? Remembering of course that they must be exercises that can be done in dress clothing in a small bathroom-sized area, in about 10 minutes. So, no lying on the floor, no equipment, and no cardio.

Love to hear your opinions!

If you've only got 10 minutes and given your other constraints... take a look at this thread (assuming you haven't already). Download these as they're good anyway - but specifically - look at the sections on isometric exercises. A 10 minute break is an ideal time to throw isometrics into the mix.

Lot's of good stuff on his site. Great book called The New Rules of Weightlifting with the best lifting program I've found. Might have to look it up under the co-author, Lou Shuler. The real strentgh of the book is Cosgrove's modular workout program. Recommend it to anyone.

He's a former TKD champ, so he has a few MA training articles.

More importantly, his gym is considered one of if the most innovative places in fitness. Its private only, and he does a lot of experimental stuff, and every thing he or a trainer does iwth a client is tracked - every set, rep, weight, resistance time, lift speed, second on a tread and amount of time running. Since he keeps such a close track of the workouts and results, he has a really good quantifiable grasp of what really works, and what doesn't.

Alwyn's awesomeness is almost despite not because of his TKD background :) He's a serious athletic trainer, although is bread and butter work is fat loss. You can generally take what he says to the bank.

Buy Never Gymless or Infinate Intensity. I did. Best money I ever spent. His conditioning workouts have done wonders for my grapple fitness. Click on the "Articles" section and have a go at some of the routines he posted. Here is one of them:

12 Burpees
Sprint hard for 50 Meters
Drop and do 10 Clap pushups

Jog back to the start and do the sequence 10 times.

That should take no more than 12 minutes. This little routine will give you more action than mostcommercial gym goers have ever seen. If you can do it 10 times without puking then your're in great shape.

Don't disagree with any of what you're saying but you read this part of what Aerochick posted originally right?

Originally Posted by aerochick

Remembering of course that they must be exercises that can be done in dress clothing in a small bathroom-sized area, in about 10 minutes. So, no lying on the floor, no equipment, and no cardio.

But, that said, to what Mr B is saying - Never Gymless has a lot of bodyweight exercises and variations that'd give you plenty of options (hint: - isometrics) :lookround

Thanks for the info, guys. I am going to check some of these links and try out some new moves. No one really answered my first question though - can I really contribute to my fitness in 10 minute bursts?

And I had a good laugh at the sand bag idea - although it may be a good exercise, I think I'd have a problem getting a sand-filled duffel bag past security, and besides, where in my office could I stash such a thing? My co-workers think I'm weird enough.....

To give a rough citing of sources, You on a Diet authors Micheal Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D. recommend 30 minutes of walking a day for life, split up to as much as 3 10 minute intervals with not notable loss of results.

IRC, Cosgrove (mentioned above) quoted in an article of his that a Japansese study found that 4 minutes of intense anaerobic excerise is as good as 30 minutes of moderate walking for long term calorie burning affects.

Also, think about this, if you did 30 minutes of lifting, and did 30 bench presses of 135 pounds and a bunch of leg stuf (not an uncommon workout), since you are female its probably the about same as doing 30 push ups in your little workout. You wouldn't question that the bench press was helpful, even though total it probably took 3 - 5 minutes.

It's a 12 minute program if you can spare an extra two minutes? You could substitute pull-ups with something like lunges (lateral if you fancy a different plane of motion to squats) but change the order so that you don't do them right next to the squats.

THis vid might give you a few ideas of various exercises too, although it only gives a very short demo of each:

If you can't do pullups anywhere(I have a tower in my office actually), replace the pushup and pullup with Dive Bomber pushups. Use a harder variety if you can easily do the normal version. After watching my Karl Gotch tape, I was inspired to do hindus, but instead ended up going hand-over-hand dive bombers.